Josiah

Deguara

H-back Deguara was a late free agent signing who couldn’t crack the 53-man roster. Beathard had no shot at a backup job locked up upon the acquisition of Mac Jones. Despite being a 2020 third-rounder, Deguara is already 27 years old.

Deguara was a third-round pick of the Packers in 2020, and has totaled 47 receptions for 436 yards and two touchdowns for his career. He managed only eight catches for 65 scoreless yards last season, as rookies Tucker Kraft and Luke Musgrave earned significant playing time out of the gate. Deguara won’t have any fantasy relevance in Jacksonville’s offense.

Deguara is not normally a player fantasy managers should know about, but with Luke Musgrave on injured reserve, the Packers’ tight end situation could offer some streaming potential. With Deguara likely out as well, rookie tight end Tucker Kraft will get the bulk of the reps. Kraft has seen some action in 12-personnel sets this year and Musgrave has been a featured part of the offense. Kraft will have some TE2 juice versus the Lions.

With Luke Musgrave apparently dealing with a serious abdomen injury, it would likely be Kraft — a third round draft pick out of South Dakota — who would function as Green Bay’s primary pass-catching tight end on Thanksgiving against Detroit. Packers TE Josiah Deguara is dealing with a hip issue and could be out for Week 12. Musgrave is 18th in tight end pass routes this season, averaging about 27 per game. He’s seen 44 targets in ten games this season. Kraft profiles as a decent streaming option if Musgrave is sidelined.

Musgrave, who caught four of five targets for 30 years, picked up what appeared to be a serious ankle injury in the fourth quarter against Denver. He was removed from the game in the third quarter after taking a cheap shot to the head from serial cheap shot artist Kareem Jackson. If he misses time, Josiah Deguara would likely step in as the main pass-catching tight end for Green Bay. He would not be fantasy relevant outside the deepest formats.

The enormous Musgrave, taken with the 42nd pick in the 2023 draft out of Oregon State, caught 11 passes for 169 yards in two games last season before suffering a season-ending knee injury. With a relative athletic score of 9.71, Musgrave, 22, profiles as Green Bay’s top pass-catching tight end alongside blocking specialist and hybrid fullback Josiah Deguara. If Musgrave gets a solid number of pass routes, he could be a sneaky late-round tight end option in a Packers offense without Robert Tonyan, who signed with the Bears this offseason.

Tonyan was limited to rehab work in OTAs, but Packers GM Brian Gutenkunst said at the time that Tonyan was “ahead of schedule” in his recovery. This update paints a cloudier picture of the tight end’s availability. If Tonyan misses regular season games, it would likely be Josiah Deguara picking up his snaps and a share of his targets.

It was a third-down throw over the middle that Deguara probably should have hauled in. Deguara’s rookie year was a pretty fair success for someone who seemed like more of a run-blocker in draftnik circles, as he made Jace Sternberger expendable and caught a couple of touchdowns. Robert Tonyan’s a free agent entering 2022 off a torn ACL, and Marcedes Lewis will turn 38 this offseason. There’s a non-zero chance Deguara finds himself as Green Bay’s TE1 in 2022. How much that means for fantasy football probably depends more on how the Packers main offseason issues play out than anything Deguara does, but this was a successful rookie season.

A majority of Deguara’s production occurred in the second half after Jordan Love dumped the ball off on a designed screen and watched Deguara sprint upfield for a 62-yard score. With Marcedes Lewis still involved for 20 snaps with Green Bay’s starters, Deguara is merely a small-slate DFS option for the postseason.

Deguara had a quiet day with just 11 yards, and that’s pretty much what you can expect given how much the Packers lean on Davante Adams and the two running backs. Deguara is a fringe top-24 tight end who can’t be trusted on a weekly basis.